SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Tessa Blanchard set off a storm of criticism from here peers after tweeting that women should support each other ahead of her match against Impact Champion Sami Callihan on the Hard To Kill PPV tomorrow night. Blanchard has had a reputation in the past of being extremely difficult to work with behind the scenes, which has prevented her from signing with a more high-profile company such as WWE, which passed on signing her after she appeared in the inaugural Mae Young Classic.
With her recent work on Impact, Blanchard seemingly had been building a better reputation, but now her colleagues are accusing her of being a racist and a bully. The backlash began when Blanchard wrote, “Hey women, try supporting one another. Cool things happen.”
NXT wrestler Chelsea Green responded to Blanchard’s tweet. “You’ve consistently put down, bullied, and belittled countless female coworkers, including me,” Green wrote. “Is that support?”
Blanchard replied to Green’s tweet writing: “Not true. That’s my statement and the most attention I’ll give it because of how actually ridiculous it is.”
NWA Women’s Champion and former Impact wrestler Allysin Kay also responded to Blanchard’s tweet. Kay responded by writing: “Remember when you spat in a black woman’s face and called her the N-word in Japan? Was that you ‘supporting women’? The AUDACITY of this tweet.”
Rebel, another former Impact wrestler, also supported Green’s claims about Blanchard. “I like to think people change over time,” Rebel wrote. “But I can confirm the bad behavior and non supportive attitude in Japan, I was there.”
The alleged incident in Japan was discussed by Big Swole, who was recently signed by AEW. The incident discussed by Swole involed Blanchard spitting on another black female talent named La Rosa Negra in Japan and calling her a n——. “So since we telling stories….Big Swole’s turn,” Swole wrote. “I won’t speak on all the other stories but the one about La Rosa I know personally. This past year at Wrestlecade I spoke to her about this and about hashing it out with Tessa. I’ve spoken to Tessa as well, after talking with La Rosa and I decided it needed to be dealt with. A conversation needed to happen because this was getting intense over the years. As a black woman this sickened me that this happened to a friend of mine. We have been dealing with this since it happened, it’s just now finding light on social media. People are entitled to deal with this how they want. I just want the world to know the last part of the story.”
Several other female wrestlers have come out and confirmed the story, which they say they kept private for years because Negra did not want to put the story out there. Recent AEW signee Shanna wrote: “she did more nasty stuff in Japan… Never forget. Practice what you preach sweetheart. I standby @LaAbusadoradePR, she’s a fun loving person who would never disrespect anyone. Much love to you Rosa.”
Renee Michelle, an independent wrestler that has made several appearances on Raw recently with her husband Drake Maverick, also confirmed the story: “The day I got the call from my gf La Rosa Negra of the incident- she made me promise to keep my mouth shut because she was afraid of being blacked ball by her,” wrote Michelle. “As promised, I did. So I helped her get into Marvelous which is another Japanese promotion.”
Radican’s Analysis: These are troubling accusations against Blanchard and they come at a bad time for Impact, as she is headlining their PPV tomorrow night against Sami Callihan and this is a big PR hit for the company on social media.
All this time later and none of these questionable accusations have effected Tessa one bit.